Empowering Students & Strengthening Families in Fulton, KY
After the Family Resource and Youth Services Center (FRYSC) Program was established in 1990 by the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990, it didn’t take long for Tracy Pulley to find a way to get involved.
As the first full-time FRYSC coordinator for Fulton Independent Schools, Tracy stepped into the role in 1993 and continued for four and a half years. After taking a break while living out of state, she has served as a consistent support for children and families in Fulton Independent Schools since she took on the role once again in 2009.
Partnership and Prevention Education
The purpose of a FRYSC is to enhance students’ abilities to succeed in school by promoting early learning, successful transition into school, academic achievement, well-being, graduation, and successful transition into adult life.
Tracy Pulley, The Family Connection FRYSC Director with Fulton Independent Schools, and Paris Jones, Outreach & Education Specialist with Lotus.
Each center receives guidance from a community advisory council. In her role, Tracy helps Fulton Independent students solve problems and overcome barriers to learning. Prevention education plays an important role in Tracy’s work.
She says, “prevention education puts a new thought in a child’s mind — ‘I have the right to be safe. If I am not safe, I must tell adults until they protect me.’ Giving people new thoughts, changing perspective and mindset, takes time and repetition and trust.”
Community partnerships, like the partnership between Lotus and Fulton Independent Schools, are the building blocks to empower students and strengthen families. Tracy knows that no one can prevent child abuse alone. Tracy likes the phrase “many hands make light work” because this is heavy work. “Isolation in general, and especially in outreach work, can lead to burnout. When I partner with others instead of working in isolation, the load lightens, and the results expand beyond my reach as an individual,” Tracy says.
Tracy is passionate about impacting the lives of students and believes, like Lotus, that we can put an end to child abuse by working together and acting on our shared responsibility to protect children.
“Families should live in a world free from child abuse,” says Tracy. “We are working every day, with as many people as possible, to make child abuse stop, to prevent it from starting in the first place.”
Make a Difference in Your Community
Together, we create a world where every person is safe and respected and can reach their full potential.
If you are a school partner, we invite you to get involved. When we work together as a community, we provide children and families with a visible network of support and resources that help families thrive.
For more information on partnering with Lotus or to schedule a prevention education program at your school, contact Caroline Glynn Neal, director of community relations, at [email protected].
